Moving Stock Between Branches: Inter-Warehouse Resupply in Odoo

Short answer: in Odoo 19, create a warehouse for each branch, then on each branch’s warehouse form tick the central warehouse under Resupply From. Odoo creates a route called Branch: Supply Product from Central. Tick that route on the products the branch gets centrally and add a reordering rule at the branch’s stock location using it. When the rule triggers, Odoo creates a delivery at the central warehouse and a receipt at the branch, and the goods sit in an Inter-warehouse transit location in between.

This is the setup guide. For the concepts, see my explainers on warehouses, locations and operation types and replenishment in Odoo.

Applies to

• Odoo version: Odoo 19. I also checked the Odoo 20 documentation, where the inter-warehouse replenishment, warehouse and reordering rule pages read the same as in Odoo 19. In the Odoo 20 code, Resupply From is no longer limited to warehouses of the same company, and cross-company resupply goes through the inter-company transit location.
• Edition: Community and Enterprise. Everything here is in the Inventory app of both.
• Apps: Inventory, plus Purchase if the central warehouse buys from vendors.

Before you start

1. One warehouse per site. A branch with its own address is a warehouse; a room or zone inside a site is a location. My warehouse setup guide covers the difference.
2. Decide what is supplied centrally. Some products may be bought locally by a branch. Only centrally supplied products need the resupply route.
3. Know the travel time between each pair of sites in days. You’ll enter it as a lead time.
4. Separate legal entities? Then you need multi-company and inter-company flows, not just warehouses. See how to set up multi-company in Odoo.

Step by step

1. Create the branch warehouses. Go to Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Warehouses, click New, and fill in Warehouse, Short Name (up to five characters, used on transfer references) and Address. When you create the second warehouse, Odoo warns that Storage Locations will be switched on, and the multi-warehouse fields appear. There’s no separate multi-warehouse checkbox to tick.
2. Set Resupply From. Open a branch warehouse, go to the Warehouse Configuration tab and, under Resupply, tick the central warehouse in Resupply From. Save. Odoo creates the route Branch: Supply Product from Central and activates the Inter-warehouse transit location. A branch can tick more than one supplying warehouse, including another branch.
3. Put the route on products. On each product, open the Inventory tab and, under Operations, tick Branch: Supply Product from Central in Routes. With Multi-Step Routes enabled, you can set it once on the product category instead.
4. Add a reordering rule at the branch. Go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Replenishment and click New. Choose the Product, set Location to the branch stock (for example JAL/Stock), and enter Min and Max. Show the Route column from the column settings and pick the resupply route. If you leave it empty, Odoo shows the route it would use in grey, which may be Buy.
5. Choose the trigger. Auto creates the transfers itself; Manual lists the need on the Replenishment report for someone to click Order.
6. Add travel time. Enable Multi-Step Routes in Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Settings, open Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Routes, open the resupply route, then the rule that brings goods from transit into the branch’s stock, and set Lead Time in days. Odoo schedules the transfers that many days before the branch needs the goods, and the branch’s rule adds those days when it works out the forecast.
7. One-off resupply. On the product form, click Replenish, set Warehouse to the branch and Preferred Route to the resupply route, enter the Quantity and click Confirm.
8. A quick direct move. For a same-day hand-over, go to Inventory ‣ Operations ‣ Internal, click New, pick the central warehouse’s internal transfer type, set Source Location to CEN/Stock and Destination Location to JAL/Stock, add lines and validate. It’s one step with no transit, so stock appears at the branch the moment you validate.

Worked example: a central warehouse supplying two branches

A paint distributor runs a Central warehouse (CEN) and two branch shops, Jalandhar (JAL) and Amritsar (ASR). Both branches have Resupply From set to Central and a 1-day Lead Time on their transit rules. These three reordering rules, all Auto, cover Exterior emulsion, 20 L:

Warehouse	Location	Min	Max	Route
Jalandhar	JAL/Stock	10	30	Jalandhar: Supply Product from Central
Amritsar	ASR/Stock	8	24	Amritsar: Supply Product from Central
Central	CEN/Stock	60	150	Buy

1. Jalandhar has 18 tins. A contractor’s order for 14 is confirmed there, so the branch forecast drops to 4, below Min.
2. When the order is confirmed (or at the next scheduler run), the Auto rule orders 30 minus 4 = 26 tins. Odoo creates a CEN delivery from CEN/Stock to Inter-warehouse transit, and a JAL receipt from transit to JAL/Stock, which waits for the delivery.
3. Central’s forecast is now 22 on hand minus 26 going out, below its Min of 60, so at its next run Central’s own Buy rule raises a purchase. Branch demand flows up to the warehouse that buys.
4. Central has only 22 tins to send today. The dispatcher sends 22 and creates a backorder for 4, as in my guide to backorders in Odoo.
5. Next day, Jalandhar receives 22 and creates a backorder for the 4 still to come from Central.

Amritsar works the same way, independently, from its own rule.

What you should see

• A Routes smart button on each branch warehouse that includes the resupply route.
• The route as a checkbox on the product’s Inventory tab.
• Pairs of transfers: a central delivery into Inter-warehouse transit, and a branch receipt in Waiting Another Operation until the delivery is validated, then Ready.
• Stock in transit under Inventory ‣ Configuration ‣ Locations once you remove the Internal filter. It’s still part of the company’s inventory value.

Troubleshooting

Resupply From isn’t on the warehouse form. The company has only one active warehouse. Create the branch warehouse first.

The branch rule created a purchase instead of a transfer. The rule has no Route, so Odoo used the default, often Buy. Set the resupply route on the rule.

The branch receipt stays in Waiting Another Operation. The central warehouse hasn’t validated its delivery yet. Check it, and its stock.

The central delivery is waiting for stock. Central has nothing to send. Give Central its own reordering rule so branch demand turns into purchases.

Stock seems to vanish between sites. It’s in Inter-warehouse transit until the branch validates its receipt.

A warehouse is missing from Resupply From. In Odoo 19 the list only shows the other warehouses of the same company.

Related setup

• How to set up reordering rules in Odoo 19
• How to set up a warehouse and locations in Odoo 19
• Shipping and receiving in Odoo
• Running several branches and want replenishment to work without daily phone calls? See Odoo implementation.

Official references

• Odoo 19 documentation: Inter-warehouse replenishment
• Odoo 19 documentation: Warehouses
• Odoo 19 documentation: Reordering rules
• Odoo 19 documentation: Routes and push/pull rules
• Odoo 19 documentation: Lead times

*How this guide was checked: menu paths, field names and behaviour were checked against the Odoo 19 documentation and the Odoo 19 code for warehouses, resupply routes, rules, reordering rules and the transit location, in October

1. The worked example is illustrative and wasn’t run on a live database, so there are no screenshots; labels can vary slightly with your installed apps and language.*

If you’re planning branch replenishment across several sites, I can help map the routes and rules before go-live. See Odoo consulting.